Conventionally, by reacting a first reactant and a second reactant with each other while causing both the reactants to flow in a contact state, a desired reaction product is manufactured. In manufacture of such a product, for example, a reactor disclosed in the following Patent Document 1 is used.
FIG. 12 shows one example of the reactor disclosed in this Patent Document 1. The reactor shown in FIG. 12 is provided with a flow path structure 102 inside which a reactant flow passage for causing reactants to flow is provided. The reactant flow passage inside the flow path structure 102 is formed by a first introduction passage 104 through which a first reactant is introduced, a second introduction passage 106 through which a second reactant is introduced, a merging passage 108 for merging both the reactants respectively flowing through the introduction passages 104, 106, and a reaction passage 110 for reacting both the reactants merged in the merging passage 108 with each other while causing the reactants to flow.
The flow path structure 102 includes a base 112, and a pair of sealing plates 114, 116 integrated while sandwiching the base 112. A first introduction groove 118 constituting the first introduction passage 104 and a reaction groove 120 constituting the reaction passage 110 are formed linearly side by side on a first surface of the base 112. A second introduction groove 122 constituting the second introduction passage 106 is formed on a second surface of the base 112 so as to extend in parallel to the first introduction groove 118. A merging hole 124 constituting the merging passage 108 runs from the first surface of the base 112 to the second surface so as to connect the grooves 118, 122, 120 between downstream ends of both the introduction grooves 118, 122 and an upstream end of the reaction groove 120. By covering opening parts of these grooves 118, 122, 120 and the merging hole 124 with the corresponding sealing plates 114, 116, the first introduction passage 104, the second introduction passage 106, the merging passage 108, and the reaction passage 110 are formed. In this reactor, a bottom surface of the first introduction groove 118 and a bottom surface of the reaction groove 120 are formed to be flush with each other.
However, with the above conventional configuration, since the first introduction groove 118 and the reaction groove 120 are formed linearly side by side on the first surface of the base 112 and the bottom surfaces of both the first introduction groove 118 and the reaction groove 120 are formed to be flush with each other, the first reactant linearly and smoothly flows. On the other hand, since the second introduction groove 122 is formed on the second surface of the base 112 serving as an opposite surface to the surface on which the first introduction groove 118 and the reaction groove 120 are formed, the second reactant is merged with the linearly-flowing first reactant in the middle. Therefore, it is relatively difficult to sufficiently mix the second reactant and the first reactant. As a result, it is difficult to increase uniformity of the mixing of both the reactants.